Eagle Wing (otherwise known as Thirteen Down) is a

Patience game Patience (Europe), card solitaire or solitaire (US/Canada), is a genre of Card game, card games whose common feature is that the aim is to arrange the cards in some systematic order or, in a few cases, to pair them off in order to discard them. Mo ...

which is played with a deck of 52

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...

s. The game takes its name from the tableau which depicts an

eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

-like

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

spreading its wings in flight. It is somewhat related to the Canfield variant Storehouse (Thirteen Up).

Rules

Thirteen cards are dealt face down as one pile, and will act as the "trunk" of the eagle, e.g the reserve. Four cards are dealt each to the left and right of the trunk (eight cards in all), which act as the "wings" of the eagle, i.e. the tableau. After these 21 cards are dealt, a twenty-second card is placed above the "eagle", which is the base of the first foundation; the three other foundations must start with cards with the same rank. The cards on the wings are available only to be built on the foundations, which are built up by suit and round-the-corner (aces placed on top of kings). Gaps are immediately filled with cards face-up from the trunk. When there are no more moves to be made from the wings, the stock is dealt one card at a time to be played onto the foundations. Unplayed cards are placed on the waste pile, the top card of which is available for play. The stock can be dealt three times, i.e. two redeals are allowed by picking up the wastepile and turning it face down. When the trunk is down to its last card, it is turned face up and immediately available to be built onto the foundations without having to wait for an empty space on the wings. Afterwards, any space on the wings may be filled with a card from the stock or the wastepile. The game ends when all moves have been made after the stock has been dealt the third time. The game is won when all cards are built up in the foundations.

Variations

As described there is no building allowed in the tableau, and this makes wins extremely rare. In her book ''100 Games of Solitaire'', Helen L. Coops allows building down by suit in the tableau. Many software implementations of Eagle Wing follow these rules, with a maximum of three cards per space. This makes the chances of winning as much as 80%. Other variations adjust the number of redeals, or the size of the trunk. Variations include Wings and Bald Eagle.

References

* Arnold, Peter. ''Card Games For One'' * Barry, Sheila Anne, ''World's Best Card Games for One'' * Bonaventure, George A. ''Games of Solitaire'' (as "Thirteen Down") *

Dick, William Brisbane Dick & Fitzgerald was a 19th-century United States publisher, founded by William Brisbane Dick (1827–1901) and Lawrence R. Fitzgerald (1826-1881), based in New York City. Their address at one time was 18 Ann Street. Dick and Fitzgerald was a pu ...

. ''Dick's Games of Patience'' (as "Thirteen Down") * Hervey, George F. ''Enjoying Card Games for One'' (as "Wings") *

Morehead, Albert H. Albert Hodges Morehead, Jr. (August 7, 1909 – October 5, 1966) was a writer for ''The New York Times'', a bridge player, a lexicographer, and an author and editor of reference works. Early years Morehead was born in Flintstone, Taylor County, ...

Mott-Smith, Geoffrey The Mott-Smith Trophy, named for writer and cryptographer Geoffrey Mott-Smith, is awarded to the player with the best overall individual performance in the Spring Nationals, the spring event of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North Amer ...

. ''The Complete Book of Solitaire & Patience Games'' *

Parlett, David David Parlett (born 18 May 1939 in London) is a games scholar, historian, and translator from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. He is the president of the British Skat Association. His published works include many pop ...

. ''The Penguin Book of Patience''

Rules

Variations

References

See also